Are Soaps’ Glory Days a Thing Of the Past?

Remember when soap opera stars appeared on the covers of national magazines? Days of Our Lives’ Doug and Julie in TIME? General Hospital’s Luke and Laura on Newsweek?

Remember when stars like Stevie Wonder popped up on All My Children, and Rosanne Barr invited the men of One Life To Live onto her titular sitcom?

Remember when soaps were so cool that a feature film like Mr. Mom inserted clips from The Young and the Restless and even the (fictional) president of the United States, The West Wing’s Jed watched Passions while laid up with the flu?

Soaps were both cool and hot then. But are their glory days behind them? A whopping 18,000 fans had something to say about that!

It Ain’t Over Till It’s Over
No, thunder a resounding 66% of you! Soaps have reinvented themselves before, from radio to TV, from a couple of women sitting around sipping coffee to adventures with The Left Handed Boy, from needing to tune in regularly five days a week to digital downloads and binge watching.

There’s no question they’ll be able to do so again, and come back bigger and better than ever.

If Love Doesn’t Last Forever, What’s Forever For?
Put a fork in it, it’s done, lament a dissenting 33%. Soaps were in the right place and the right time for the right medium. And now those days are gone. Reality shows do what soaps used to do – and they do it cheaper. Even primetime shows have gone episodic.

And now that some shows drop entire seasons that viewers can watch at their own leisure, no one will ever have the patience for daily viewing again.

Listen to the Fans
And then there are the 1% of you who think you can flip this downturn around. Your suggestion is to listen to the fans, write interesting stories, and stop firing favorites.

Easy, right?

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